THE effect of the death of President McKinley upon the commerce of the country
will not justify the apprehensions expressed by those who are either pessimistic
by nature, or are unfamiliar with conditions. It is reassuring to note that
the views of men of large business interests in all parts of the United States
are in almost unanimous accord that the unexampled prosperity of the country
will not sustain any serious set-back because of the Buffalo tragedy. The same
sentiment prevails in all sections of the United States. Our most eminent and
astute commercial minds have been interviewed by the newspapers of their respective
localities, and there is no real division of sentiment in the matter. It is
only here and there that some ill-informed calamity-seeker rises up to express
his forebodings of evil. There is no cause for agitation upon this score, lamentable
as is the affliction that has come upon the nation, for the simple reason that
the general conditions of trade and industry are sound and wholesome, that the
business of the country is finding its outlet through purely normal channels,
and that the question of its health and permanence therefore rises beyond the
reach of such woful [sic] accidents as have befallen.